Own It
by cosmicaddress
Summary: Michael never really wanted to take his headphones off. Whenever people decided to talk to him, it always felt like he was being forced to. But something about the cute librarian that night was different. -OR- The boyf riends library AU that nobody asked for but I wrote anyway.


**(A/N) hello, all! this is a cheesy-ass boyf riends fic i wrote because they deserve more happy fics and i wanted a friend to have one because i know he likes them. this one is for him.**

Michael actually wanted to take his headphones off for once.

He had been walking towards his favorite music store when he had seen a sign posted on the door with six large red letters printed on it: "CLOSED". Great. His moms were gone for the weekend and he really hadn't wanted to be alone in his house like a loser, so he had come to the music store to be one. He didn't feel like going home and getting high. He felt like he needed to do something else tonight.

His eyes drifted over to the library next door. He had never gone in before, but he was desperate for something to do, so he opened the door and walked straight in.

The first thing he noticed was the boy near the back of the building, organizing some shelves. He looked to be around Michael's age, and was wearing a navy blue cardigan and striped shirt that slightly hiked up as he reached higher. Michael had to take a second before walking over to one of the empty sections near the middle.

Thumbing through books, he occasionally peered over at the other boy. He didn't recognize him from school or anything, but that was probably because he was always so focused on his music. It was better than listening to dickwads like Rich and Jake make homophobic comments.

This boy was probably one of the cutest people he had ever seen. He had earbuds plugged in, and, every so often, would bop his head along to the music before looking around himself and focusing back on his work.

The rest of the library was pretty empty, likely because most people didn't go to the library at nine at night. He still felt the need to pretend like he was doing something other than checking an employee out.

Michael startled when the boy suddenly glanced over at him with wide eyes. His face seemed to light up as he approached Michael's section.

The boy began speaking excitedly about something, although Michael couldn't hear because of the Bob Marley currently blasting in his ears. Normally, he would begrudgingly take his headphones off to listen to whoever was talking to him. But normally there wasn't a very cute teenage boy making him actually want to do it.

"Sorry, dude, what was that?" Michael gestured to the headphones now hanging around his neck, chuckling at the expression on the other boy's face. He seemed to be a bit embarassed. "I'm Michael, by the way."

"Oh! Right, I'm Jeremy," Jeremy replied, a soft smile accompanying a red tinge on his cheeks. He fidgeted with his cardigan for a moment before continuing. "It's just that, I saw your hoodie, which is awesome, by the way! And I was looking at it, and I thought I saw an Apocalypse of the Damned patch, and—"

"Wait, you know what Apocalypse of the Damned is?" Michael interrupted excitedly, his grin widening. "Holy shit, I've never met anybody who's heard of it before. Have you gotten past level nine?"

"I've been stuck on it for months! It's so hard, I just want to move on," Jeremy whined, his face scrunching up. "No game should have a single player option and a co-op mode if it's going to be impossible to beat it in one of them."

"Well, it is supposed to be a two-player game" Michael replied, a sudden surge of confidence flowing through him. "It must be my lucky day to find such a cute player two."

Michael clamped his hand over his mouth in shock. What the fuck had he just said? Sure, Jeremy was cute, but Michael was never this direct, with anyone. For some reason, talking to Jeremy had made him feel comfortable.

Obviously that wasn't a good thing, since Michael had to fuck it up like the weirdo he was. Now Jeremy just seemed flustered, and his face was completely red. Michael turned away and stared at the row of books in front of him. He couldn't believe that he had just done that. What if Jeremy realized that it was an attempt at flirting? Michael had just taken his one chance to have maybe at least a friend and thrown it away by having a complete lack of self control. Being so upfront was screwing him over. There was a reason he didn't talk to people much.

"Who said I'm going to let you be player one?" Jeremy suddenly said. Michael turned around to look at him. He was still red in the face, but had an amused expression. "I'm just saying, if you're gonna call me cute, then you gotta own it. Um, don't worry, you're not too bad yourself? Sorry, I'm not very good at this..."

"Jeremy," Michael swallowed back the lump in his throat. He had never been so happy that his favorite music store was closed. Jeremy was quite possibly the most perfect person he had ever met. "When do you get off of work?"

"Now," Jeremy said, pointing at the empty cart from which he had pulling books from before. "Reshelving was my closing task."

"Do you want to maybe come over and play Apocalypse of the Damned with me?" Michael asked before he lost the nerve. He had never really had anyone to hang out with before, and this was a golden opportunity ahead of him.

"We can just stay here, if you want," Jeremy answered, fiddling with his sleeves. He seemed a bit nervous for some reason. "We have a copy and consoles here."

"Libraries have video games? Why the fuck did I not know this before?" Michael gasped, already regretting not having set foot inside this library before. He had been feeling that way since he met Jeremy, but this discovery made it worse. "Let's go, dude!"

Jeremy led Michael towards the side hall that branched off from the main area of the library, and opened a door to a room that had a few beanbag chairs. He noticed a few video game posters on the walls and a large case that was completely filled with video games.

"Why is this even here?" Michael wondered aloud, immediately going over to the case and inspecting the collection. He was surprised at the number of retro games here.

"It was my idea, actually," Jeremy responded, running his hand through his hair. He seemed so modest. "Well, I read about how younger people aren't using libraries as much anymore, but I thought maybe if we had video games here, it would give kids a reason to come. And it's been working! People have been checking out way more stuff lately."

"That's really cool, Jere," Michael smiled, grabbing Apocalypse of the Damned and plopping down on one of the bean bags. He snorted at the look on Jeremy's face. "What?"

"Sorry, um..." Jeremy trailed off for a moment. Michael thought that Jeremy seemed to be the most flustered he had been all night. "Jere?"

"Come on, I need a nickname for a cute guy like you," Michael responded. Jeremy made some sort of squeaking noise before sitting down in a beanbag of his own. Michael took this opportunity to set up the game and make his own controller player one. "Alright, player two, you ready to kick some ass?"

Michael had never had so much fun playing his favorite video game. They had to start from the beginning, as Jeremy had never played co-op before, but they breezed through fairly quickly. Somehow they were just able to communicate super easily. It was like there really had been something nudging Michael to come inside earlier, something saying that they were supposed to meet.

After a few hours of playing, they were in the final battle wave of level nine. The tension in the room was unbearable. Michael wasn't entirely sure what would happened if they failed now.

Suddenly, the zombies stopped coming. Michael frowned for a moment. Had the game glitched? It was a library copy, after all. Even if the only person using it was Jeremy, it could have been scratched. Then his eyes drifted over to the numbers and words in the corner of the screen.

Wave 12 of 12: Complete.

Michael and Jeremy both began shrieking at the same time. Michael had never seen someone look so happy. He had never felt so happy himself. God, this felt so special. After years of struggle, he had finally done it. Sure, Apocalypse of the Damned was part of it. Level nine was a bitch. But that wasn't all of it.

He had never connected with someone in this way before. His whole life, he had looked around him at his peers, people who all seemed to have the normal teenage experience, who had friends and people who they could hang out with and talk to. He hadn't had that before. Then, all of a sudden, tonight came out of nowhere. He felt like he had known Jeremy his whole life, like they should have met much, much earlier. Like being a loser his whole life was finally worth it, because he had never stopped owning it and now he had a chance.

Michael wasn't going to waste any time. He would take Jeremy's advice and own it, no matter what.

"Hey, Jeremy?" Michael paused the game, and looked into Jeremy's eyes. They almost made Michael melt on the spot.

"Yeah, Mike?" Jesus Christ. Jeremy was going to be the death of him.

"Would you maybe want to go on a date with me sometime? " This time, Michael didn't look away, no matter how much he felt like he wanted to. Jeremy smiled, and Michael smiled back.

Oh. That wasn't so bad.

"I'd love to," Jeremy replied. Michael bumped his shoulder against Jeremy's. "But you know what it's time for?"

"Apocalypse of the Damned!" Michael called out excitedly, and Jeremy joined in. "Level Ten: The Library!"

A few weeks later found Michael casually browsing one of the back aisles, constantly checking his watch. His meetups with Jeremy had become a regular Saturday night thing, seeing as they were dating now. They had finished Apocalypse of the Damned, but started other co-op games together. And that wasn't the only thing they did.

"Right on schedule, I see," Jeremy snuck up behind him and grabbed his hands, leaning against his shoulder. Michael breathed in for a moment, relishing in the feeling of being in someone's arms. Then he turned around and brought Jeremy into his own embrace, slowly moving them both into the corner behind the shelves.

"Of course I am," Michael murmured into Jeremy's hair, getting closer to his ear. "I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"That's not very flattering when I'm basically your whole world," Jeremy teased, a playful grin gracing his features. Michael narrowed his eyes, and Jeremy snorted at him.

"Shut up and kiss me, you idiot," Michael pulled Jeremy in closer, and the shorter boy obliged. Michael smiled against his lips. They stayed like that for a few minutes, just enjoying being with each other. The making out was the bonus. Michael didn't want to stop, he was ready to stay there forever, until—

"Mr. Heere, get back to work!" A voice called out from the front desk. Jeremy's eyes widened as he stumbled back. Michael giggled at the look on his face.

"Yeah, get back to work," Michael taunted, picking up a book they had knocked onto the floor and putting it back on the shelf pointedly. "I'll be here when you get off."

Jeremy gave him one last peck before heading towards the front counter and apologizing profusely to his boss. Michael shook his head at him in amusement before heading to the video game room and relaxing on one of the beanbags.

He felt satisfied for the first time in a while. There was no doubt that he was still stuck. After all, dating Jeremy hadn't changed that much about his life. But, at the same time, it had changed so much. They were had both been stuck on a level, but now they were stuck on a new one together.

Michael decided that that was more than enough.


End file.
